Changes in opioid distribution and chronic opioid users following outpatient orthopedic surgery: a pre-post intervention study.

Background: Outpatient overprescribing of opioids in the postoperative period contributes to the opioid epidemic. Given that patient education and evidence-informed prescription protocols have reduced postoperative opioid use in small, randomized trials, we sought to evaluate the effectiveness of a multimodal opioid reduction protocol, implemented institution-wide at an outpatient Canadian orthopedic surgery centre.

Methods: In this pre-post intervention study, we used deidentified health administrative data from a provincial data repository to identify all opioid-naive patients who underwent outpatient shoulder or knee surgery at a single institution between 2013 and 2022. An opioid restriction protocol was implemented in 2019, including an educational pamphlet, perioperative verbal education, and a standardized postoperative analgesic prescription. Outcomes analyzed included dispensed morphine milligram equivalents (MME) per patient within 180 days of surgery and chronic opioid use, defined as opioids dispensed 180-270 days after surgery. Prescriptions dispensed from any provider were included.

Results: We included 8244 patients preintervention and 2205 patients postintervention in the analyses. The average MME dispensed per patient decreased by 18% (57.8 MME, 95% confidence interval 45.0-70.6). The proportion of patients who filled opioid prescriptions beyond 180 days after surgery decreased from 4.8% to 2.6% (p < 0.001). These findings remained consistent after adjustment for age, sex, socioeconomic status, mental health, and medical comorbidity in multivariable regression analyses.

Conclusion: The volume of opioids dispensed and the number of chronic opioid users were significantly reduced among patients who underwent outpatient orthopedic surgery after the institution-wide implementation of a multimodal postoperative opioid reduction protocol.